5 ms·

They will never be awesome. It is like having built in navigation in your car vs an iPhone. Built in is proprietary bs that will always be out of date, and har

by pfisch 12y ago

They will never be awesome. It is like having built in navigation in your car vs an iPhone. Built in is proprietary bs that will always be out of date, and hardware refreshes will take like 5+ years because how often do you get a new tv. Right now my roku runs about 1000x faster than my smart tv and is really just superior in every way. Stand alone boxes will always be better because the software will be better and hardware refreshes happen much faster.

mpeg 12y ago
I have a few set top boxes too, but I'd like deeper integration with the tv firmware itself, and that's something that they can't do unless the firmware was open. In which case, we could have the same regular updates you get with a roku.
- fnordfnordfnord 12y ago
  There are smart TV's with open firmware?
  - xai3luGi 12y ago
    http://www.samygo.tv/ http://www.samygo.tv/
spuz 12y ago
That really doesn't make sense logically. The physical location of the computer doesn't affect whether it is proprietary or open source, or how frequently it will receive updates. The navigation on your phone is probably better than the one in your car right now, but when Apple or Google take over the car system market you will have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto in modern cars that have high quality software with fast update cycles. There is no reason why the same thing won't happen with TVs. In fact as mpeg, stated if you assume the firmware in your next Smart TV is open, it will be possible to run customer operating systems such as Android or XMBC giving you complete control without the external box or wires. Edit: Though what you say about hardware refreshes is absolutely right.
- k3oni 12y ago
  I think that a good point he was making has to do with " Right now". How about we compare apples to apples and stop trying to make cases for the future, when google or apple take over the car system can mean 3-5 years from now.
- pjc50 12y ago
  Hardware refreshes are an absolute killer. I have a 2007 car, which works fine, and a 2010 iPad, which is no longer receiving OS updates. Welding the two together benefits neither. The best compromise would be car-as-peripheral; have all the buttons map to a USB HID device connected to a flush-fit tablet dock. Just remember not to bridge the UI directly to the same CAN bus as the fly-by-wire throttle.
  - VLM 12y ago
    "car-as-peripheral" I have a 2300 pound, 2014 model year, gasoline powered bluetooth speaker, exactly as you suggest. In the showroom they had a "smart nav smart entertainment system" upgrade for only $1200 that was as much of a turd as the typical smart TV. Its hard to buy a dumb-stereo for a car that doesn't have BT pairing today. Mostly I stream podcasts and audiobooks from my phone. Hit play on the phone, put the transmission in drive, thats my commute.
- mpeg 12y ago
  You can actually update hardware on recent Samsung smart tvs without changing the screen, it's a separate component that slots into the TV
- marcosdumay 12y ago
  > The physical location of the computer doesn't affect whether it is proprietary or open source Yes, it does. When it comes bundled with another product, it'll be proprietary. Companies just don't bundle products to increase your freedom or their competitors power.
actsasbuffoon 12y ago
I agree with your general point, but my Sony TV automatically downloads firmware updates on a regular basis. The apps (Netflix, YouTube, etc.) are updated regularly, though the changes aren't always improvements. That said, the apps on my TV are surprisingly serviceable. I can even stream video files directly to it (though an Apple TV does this with better reliability and video quality). The only unforgivable failure is that it doesn't have a Twitch app, but neither does the Apple TV, XBox One, PS4 (it doesn't count if I can only watch PS4 games being streamed), or Wii U.
- pfisch 12y ago
  That is fine that there are firmware updates or whatever, but your smart tv is like 1000x slower than a roku 3 and doesn't have the app depth. In 2 years it will be several more orders of magnitude worse than whatever new peripheral I have attached to my tvs, and they will have stopped updating the software on your tv because the hardware can't handle their little tv OS.

by pfisch 12y ago

mpeg 12y ago

I have a few set top boxes too, but I'd like deeper integration with the tv firmware itself, and that's something that they can't do unless the firmware was open. In which case, we could have the same regular updates you get with a roku.

fnordfnordfnord 12y ago
There are smart TV's with open firmware?
- xai3luGi 12y ago
  http://www.samygo.tv/ http://www.samygo.tv/

spuz 12y ago

That really doesn't make sense logically. The physical location of the computer doesn't affect whether it is proprietary or open source, or how frequently it will receive updates. The navigation on your phone is probably better than the one in your car right now, but when Apple or Google take over the car system market you will have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto in modern cars that have high quality software with fast update cycles. There is no reason why the same thing won't happen with TVs. In fact as mpeg, stated if you assume the firmware in your next Smart TV is open, it will be possible to run customer operating systems such as Android or XMBC giving you complete control without the external box or wires. Edit: Though what you say about hardware refreshes is absolutely right.

k3oni 12y ago
I think that a good point he was making has to do with " Right now". How about we compare apples to apples and stop trying to make cases for the future, when google or apple take over the car system can mean 3-5 years from now.
pjc50 12y ago
Hardware refreshes are an absolute killer. I have a 2007 car, which works fine, and a 2010 iPad, which is no longer receiving OS updates. Welding the two together benefits neither. The best compromise would be car-as-peripheral; have all the buttons map to a USB HID device connected to a flush-fit tablet dock. Just remember not to bridge the UI directly to the same CAN bus as the fly-by-wire throttle.
- VLM 12y ago
  "car-as-peripheral" I have a 2300 pound, 2014 model year, gasoline powered bluetooth speaker, exactly as you suggest. In the showroom they had a "smart nav smart entertainment system" upgrade for only $1200 that was as much of a turd as the typical smart TV. Its hard to buy a dumb-stereo for a car that doesn't have BT pairing today. Mostly I stream podcasts and audiobooks from my phone. Hit play on the phone, put the transmission in drive, thats my commute.
mpeg 12y ago
You can actually update hardware on recent Samsung smart tvs without changing the screen, it's a separate component that slots into the TV
marcosdumay 12y ago
> The physical location of the computer doesn't affect whether it is proprietary or open source Yes, it does. When it comes bundled with another product, it'll be proprietary. Companies just don't bundle products to increase your freedom or their competitors power.

actsasbuffoon 12y ago

I agree with your general point, but my Sony TV automatically downloads firmware updates on a regular basis. The apps (Netflix, YouTube, etc.) are updated regularly, though the changes aren't always improvements. That said, the apps on my TV are surprisingly serviceable. I can even stream video files directly to it (though an Apple TV does this with better reliability and video quality). The only unforgivable failure is that it doesn't have a Twitch app, but neither does the Apple TV, XBox One, PS4 (it doesn't count if I can only watch PS4 games being streamed), or Wii U.

pfisch 12y ago
That is fine that there are firmware updates or whatever, but your smart tv is like 1000x slower than a roku 3 and doesn't have the app depth. In 2 years it will be several more orders of magnitude worse than whatever new peripheral I have attached to my tvs, and they will have stopped updating the software on your tv because the hardware can't handle their little tv OS.